Nearly 500 people answered the call of the JIF platform, on March 8, to march through the streets of the capital defending women and their rights.
The heavy rains will at no time have dampened the energy and motivation of the some 500 demonstrators who marched this Wednesday evening in the city center of Luxembourg for women’s rights. The meeting for this great feminist march had been set on Place Hamilius at 5 p.m. by the JIF platform. This brings together around twenty organizations, political parties, trade unions around a single cause: women’s rights, the international day of which was celebrated on March 8.
From 4:45 p.m., the crowd begins to swell, the first flags and other signs are raised above the heads. Among the demonstrators, we come across a few politicians such as the Minister of Health, Paulette Lenert, trade unionists such as the president of the OGBL, Nora Back, but also and above all mothers of families accompanied by their children, high school girls, students, men and a good number of anonymous people who came to support the movement and denounce the inequalities which persist between the sexes. Present with her husband and three children, Maria-Angeles maintains that “even if progress has been made, we must continue to fight”. “We are not yet at the point where equality between men and women exists. I’ve been fighting for decades and I’m not going to stop there, ”announces the fifty-year-old, who is not at her first feminist manifestation.
Maria-Angeles: “I’ve been fighting for decades and I’m not going to stop” #WomensDay pic.twitter.com/FPmyhoO7YO
– The Daily (@le_quotidien_lu) March 8, 2023
Across the square, 18-year-old Eleen and her friends hold up several signs that read “Diversity, Equality, Unity!” and “Equal wages, equal pensions”. “I am here to remind you that as a woman, I have rights and that everyone must respect these rights”, supports the young woman, a pink heart drawn on the cheek. One fight in particular is very important to her: the gender pay gap. “Women and men should be paid equally,” she says forcefully.
“As a woman, I have rights and everyone must respect these rights” supports Eleen, 18 pic.twitter.com/ECquKNwIhO
– The Daily (@le_quotidien_lu) March 8, 2023
“Contradicting the official narrative”
This is one of the demands carried as a banner by the JIF platform. On her site, she lists four main ones: a roof over her head, a life without violence, money to live on and more equality in our families. In the ranks of the rally, we meet one of the organizers, Jessica Lopes, social worker at ASTI, and active member of the JIF.
“I think Luxembourg has a gift for using statistics to its advantage, but we have a very particular situation due to the transnational situation,” she denounces. “Today, we are here to contradict this official narrative and say that there are still a lot of construction sites. We will continue to be in the street to defend our rights”.
As a member of ASTI, the young woman also highlights one of the main reasons for her presence in the procession this Wednesday. “Migrant women are among the groups most exposed to gender-based violence, human trafficking and labor exploitation. This is why it is important to present them. “ASTI calls for the regularization of all undocumented people in Luxembourg. To fight against all these forms of violence against women. As a reminder, Statec stated in one of its reports published at the end of 2022 that one in five women had already been the victim of physical, sexual or psychological violence.
“I think Luxembourg has a gift for using statistics to its advantage”, denounces Jessica Lopes, active member of the JIF #WomensDay23 pic.twitter.com/3x6dmBytOH
– The Daily (@le_quotidien_lu) March 8, 2023
Music and Claims
Shortly after 5 p.m., the crowd gets going. In the pouring rain, the songs resound, the smoke lamps light up. It is a long column draped in purple, the color of the JIF platform that stretches along the streets. All to music, to the sounds of feminist song icons Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and of course Beyoncé. The procession heads for the Place d’Armes in good spirits and demands, passing in front of the Chamber, the Palace and taking the Grand-Rue.
Before reaching the conclusion of this feminist march which will have lasted a good hour, we meet Charles, 28, one of the many men present during this demonstration. It is important to her that women achieve “access to housing, access to decent wages for all those who work, all those who are needed to run a society properly”.
According to him, today, “everyone manages to be openly feminist and I think that’s a good thing. There is no question to ask when you see that the demands concern everyone and benefit everyone, you have to go for it”.
“Everyone manages to be openly feminist”, analyzes Charles, 28 #WomensDay2023 pic.twitter.com/3hEiQ13Gw4
– The Daily (@le_quotidien_lu) March 8, 2023